“Hey again! So the past few days have b-
krr-ZZT-kkkk...
“What the...?”
WHACK!
“Hitting it is only going to break it more.”
“Right, sorry. I’m just impatient.”
“Just give it a moment. It’s an old thing.”
“...”
“...there we go, I think it’s good. Try playing it now.”
ZZT-
“-all day. Probably the most boring thing I’ve ever done. Didn’t help that Gentle was getting on my case about taking my Bitalin now that she knew about it, so I couldn’t even just let myself fall into being easily distracted to pass the time.
“Finally, though, I was feeling good enough to walk again...
For the first time in almost a week, Cobalt stepped out of the house.
He blinked as the sunlight hit his eyes in an unexpected glare. He had seen the sun through the bedroom window, sure, but it was so much brighter when he was getting it all at once rather than only what could get through a little square hole. But even though it temporarily blinded him, he welcomed it.
His body was feeling much better now, with the bullets removed from his flesh and the wounds bandaged up. What had not healed completely was almost there. However, he still stumbled a bit as he walked, and Gentle had to stay beside him to support him.
Force had checked up on him at least once a day, and a few doctors had taken care of him for the first while, but Gentle stayed with him the longest. She stayed in the house at all times, and in the bedroom with him at least half the time. After he was no longer spending almost every hour of the day asleep, the two of them talked, asking questions about one another. Most of Gentle’s questions were about Cobalt’s past. Cobalt, however, seemed to want to know about the future instead.
“What do I do when I’m better?” he had asked one day.
“Whatever you want to do,” Gentle had replied.
“But I don’t know what I want to do...”
“Do you want to find your father?”
“Yes.”
“Then do that.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, I’m afraid.”
Cobalt didn’t know either. And here, as he stepped outside for the first time in days, he still didn’t know.
“Where’s Terminal?” Cobalt asked. The question was more out of curiosity than worry. He knew Terminal didn’t really like him, and in turn, his feelings about the sniping unicorn were about neutral.
“Packing up,” Gentle replied with a sigh. Force, who had joined them not long after they left the house, nodded. “He’s travelling someplace else. Not that he said where.”
Cobalt tilted his head. “Why?”
“He says the mission’s done,” Force broke in. “We saved Hope, and that was what I asked him to help me with. He doesn’t see any reason to stay in Springsettlement anymore, so he’s leaving.”
“Oh.” This made a bit of sense to the young earth pony, though he still wondered why Terminal hadn’t even said where he was moving to. “What about you?”
“Me? I’m just gonna kick back and live here for however long I live. Somepony’s gotta look after Hope.”
Cobalt turned to look at Gentle, silently repeating the question to her.
“I’m not sure what I’ll be doing,” she admitted. “I could stay here, but there isn’t much I can do around here. The only family I had living here were killed when the raiders attacked.”
The young colt sighed. “I was hoping I could figure out my own plans based on what you three were doing.”
“Well, in reality, I think you’ve only got two choices,” Force said thoughtfully. “Either stay here in moderate safety and do nothing, or go out into the Wasteland and figure out life from there.” He chuckled. “Can’t exactly do both.”
“I want to find my dad,” Cobalt mumbled.
“Then it’s Option B for you. Shame, too. Hope’s gonna be sad to know you’re leaving...”
Both Gentle and Cobalt looked at him, confused. “What do you mean?” the mare asked.
“Hope knows as well as any of the former slaves do that it was ol’ Coby here who got them out,” Force elaborated, ruffling the young colt’s mane (which was responded to with a whimper of annoyance and mild pain). “But she’s a lot more ecstatic about it. She goes and yaks on to anypony who’ll listen about how awesome and heroic he was.”
“Awesome? Heroic?” Cobalt felt proud, but disbelieving. “All I did was pick some locks and run away.”
“Sometimes even small actions from small ponies can have big results,” the unicorn replied.
Somehow, Cobalt got the feeling that he wasn’t necessarily the ‘small pony’ Force was referring to.
They didn’t walk far. Only to Buy, Try, Stay Alive. The trip was partially for Cobalt to start walking again, and partially so Gentle could stock up on supplies. She didn’t say what for.
Cobalt was still wary of the shop, though Force assured him that he’d have a “talk” with the stallion who had been filling in for the store's actual owner at the time. He put a strange emphasis on the word “talk” that slightly scared Cobalt.
“While Gentle’s in there, how about I take you to meet Hope?” the unicorn suggested. “The two of you haven’t properly met yet.”
Cobalt nodded in agreement, and they began walking towards Terminal’s house. Since the sniper pony was moving out, he had given his home to the others, and it was Force and Hope who took it and had been living in it for the past few days.
Just as they arrived, Terminal was leaving through the front door, a small box in his magical grasp. He placed it on top of another, larger box, then turned to see his two guests.
“Force. Cobalt.” He nodded in greeting. The colt was surprised that he had been addressed by name.
“Just here to see Hope,” Force replied.
Terminal nodded again, as though he already knew that. “She’s in the den, drawing.” He looked down at Cobalt with his usual look of indifference, but with an easily missed bit of respect as well. “You did good, kid. Credit where it’s due.”
“Thanks...” Cobalt responded meekly. He still wasn’t sure about this stallion.
The large unicorn leaned against his small stack of boxes. “So what’re you gonna do now?”
“Find my dad.” The answer was engraved into his brain by now.
“You’re going back out into the Horseshoe Wasteland?”
“Yeah...if that’s what I have to do.”
Terminal would never admit it, but he was surprised at the kid’s guts. He was silent for a minute, letting it sink in. He then stood up straight. “You two go in and see Hope, but don’t leave. I’m gonna get something.” He trotted back into the house. Shrugging to each other, Force and Cobalt followed.
Hope was, as Terminal said, lying on the ragged-looking carpet in the den with a crayon clutched in her magical hold. As soon as Force and Cobalt walked in, she looked up at them, instantly grinning widely.
Since being saved, Hope had been cleaned up. Her coat was, as thought, a light red colour, and her mane and tail were soft pink. Her eyes were bright violet, much more prominent with her mane brushed back to avoid covering her face. She still had a bandage or two on her body, but overall, she looked much better than she did during Cobalt’s rescue several days earlier.
It took all of two seconds for her to drop the crayon, jump to her hooves, and run up to Cobalt to envelope him in a sudden hug.
“Coby!” she cried. Apparently, she had picked his nickname up from her brother.
The colt on the receiving end of the embrace was having trouble figuring out how to respond. He just hugged back, searching his blank mind for words.
Force chuckled. “You two get acquainted. I’m gonna go talk to Terminal.”
“So just where do you plan on going?” the smaller unicorn asked, walking into his larger friend’s room. The other unicorn was loading objects one by one from a pile into a third and final box.
“Away,” came the cryptic response.
“Oh, stop being like that. You’re the one who’s always on our backs about having a plan. So what’s yours?”
Terminal sighed, pausing in his packing. The shimmer on his body glinted briefly, becoming a bit more noticeable. “Lunar Spotlight.”
Force’s eyebrow raised. “Lunar Spotlight? Term, you know better than I do how dangerous that town is. More raiders than we’ve ever seen at once.”
“Yes, I know.”
“Then why the hell are you going there?”
Terminal picked up his pistol. He looked it over for a moment, removed the clip, and loaded in a new one before dropping it into the box. “Gonna take out as many of them as I can.”
“You’ll die.”
“I know.” He closed the box. “Maybe it’s about time.”
“Pardon?”
“You know I’m a lot older than I look, Force.” He leaned against the box. “I’ve been having a lot of trouble keeping up my illusion spell to hide that fact. I should have been dead, what, a hundred years ago?”
“Two hundred,” Force corrected almost subconsciously.
“Two hundred years ago. I haven’t done anything with my life - or lack of one, if you want to get technical - since then. Sure, I helped you find Hope, but it was really Cobalt who had the most important role. Anypony can use a sniper rifle.” He started picking through his pile of belongings again. “Speaking of which...”
Force watched as his friend pulled his sniper rifle from the bottom of the pile and slid it over to him.
“Give that to our little friend, will you? He’s gonna need it.”
Force blinked. “What?”
“He’s going out into the Wasteland to find his dad. He’s gonna need more firepower than a toy gun and a revolver. Me, I’m just gonna take my pistol and shotgun to Lunar Spotlight and take out as many fuckers as I can before I get killed for real.”
The smaller unicorn shook his head. “...why are you doing this? And what do I tell Coby?”
Terminal picked up his recently-packed box with his magic. “I’m doing this because I have nothing else to do, and because I want to die as I lived: in battle.” He headed for the door. “As for what to tell Cobalt...just tell him I’m not here right now.”
With those final words, the disguised ghoul left the room, his body shimmering one last time.
Click...click...click...
Hope giggled, watching Cobalt flick the light function of his PipBuck on and off. Cobalt giggled as well.
They kept this up for a couple minutes, then became bored. “What else does it do?” Hope asked.
“I dunno,” Cobalt admitted. He tapped the screen, then yelped as music suddenly began blaring from it. Slamming his hoof on the PipBuck several times, he tried to shut it off, having accidentally tuned in to the radio.
After a moment, he finally managed to turn it off, and breathed heavily for a moment. He looked over at Hope, who had been similarly startled, and she looked back. They were quiet for a minute, then burst out laughing.
Once their laughter had died down, they sighed, boredom returning. Cobalt idly tapped at his PipBuck - careful to avoid turning the radio on again - trying to find something else on it to show off. Sadly, nothing came up that made any sense to him.
“I wish this came with an instruction manual,” he mumbled, loading up something called ‘Eyes-Forward Sparkle’. “What are all these green dots?” Shaking his head, he exited out of it.
Hope looked at the PipBuck, then up at its wearer. “So, um...what do you wanna do now?”
The colt shrugged. “I don’t know, really...what do you wanna do?”
She thought for a moment. “Well...I was drawing earlier...want to give that a try?”
Cobalt nodded, and with a smile, the filly slid a couple sheets of paper and some crayons over to him. She laid down on her stomach, picking up a crayon of her own in her magical hold, resuming the drawing she had been working on earlier.
Cobalt, however, had a bit of trouble. Not with the act of drawing - though he was an earth pony, he knew how to hold things in his hoof properly, and manipulating the crayon like so was a practiced task. Rather, he had no idea what he wanted to draw.
He was suddenly distracted by the sound of hoofsteps. He looked over to see Terminal walk by, not even giving him a glance before walking out the front door. Cobalt blinked at that, a little confused. He hadn’t seen such a sudden an unexplained exit since his dad left Stable 14.
...dad...
Before he even knew what he was doing, he began sketching a familiar pony. It was a rough drawing, as he had never been much of an artist, but it was recognizable to him. His colour options were limited, so he mainly stuck to just using a black crayon; even without the proper colours, he could imagine the light brown coat and deep blue hair of the earth pony on the paper.
He stopped and looked down at his attempt at a drawing. He had never been able to understand his father’s cutie mark, so all he had drawn on the flank was a squiggle. Not that one could tell that’s why it was drawn like that, given how the entire body looked like just a series of scribbles. Cobalt sighed; he could manipulate a screwdriver and paper clips, but not a crayon.
His train of thought was interrupted by a loud squeak from Hope. “Done!” she cried out as she dropped the crayon from her magical grasp. Then, picking up the paper, she examined her work.
Cobalt couldn’t help his curiosity as he tried to sneak a peek at her little art project. Slowly, he crawled over and peered over her shoulder to try and get a good look. Hope turned to him, not seeming to care for the lack of space between them, and simply smiled.
“Like it?” she asked, holding her drawing up for the young earth pony to get a better look.
He blinked a couple times before asking, “What is it?” He had a feeling he knew, but part of him didn’t understand it.
The young filly giggled into her hoof, trying to hold in her faint laughter. “It’s you, silly.” Sure enough, the drawing was of Cobalt, but with a few changes. The colt was standing atop a mountain, in a heroic pose, wearing a green cape that blew in the breeze.
The purple colt wasn’t sure what to think, but he felt his face heating up. Looking over, Hope couldn’t help but notice the blush. She giggled again. “So...?”
He opened his mouth to respond, but his brain couldn’t formulate a proper reply, and all that came out was a little squeak.
Hope found herself nearly doubling over. She tried so hard to keep the laughter in, but failed miserably. She just burst out laughing, and after a moment, Cobalt couldn’t help but join her. For the second time, they both fell into uproars of laughter.
After a nice long laughing session, a long and seemingly awkward silence drew out. Hope, quickly trying to think of something to break the quiet, looked over at the abandoned sheet of paper that Cobalt had been working on previously. “So what did you draw?”
Slowly, she walked over to the piece of parchment on the floor and picked it up in her magical aura, either ignoring or not noticing the nervous look on the purple colt’s face.
She tilted her head in confusion. “What is it?”
He pawed at the ground awkwardly. “Oh, um... it’s supposed to be a picture of my dad.”
“Your dad...?”
He nodded. “Yeah...”
“I think Force said...you were looking for your dad?”
The colt nodded again. “I don’t know where he is...he’s somewhere in the Horseshoe Wasteland. He ran away from our Stable the night before I did, so he doesn’t exactly have a huge head start...but still, he could be anywhere by now.” His tone was even; not excited, but not solemn. He was simply stating the facts as he knew them.
Sadly, Hope looked down at her hooves and frowned. “I haven’t seen my daddy in a long time...”
Cobalt’s heart sunk a bit. He knew from Force the story about what happened to their parents, and he didn’t want to end up digging up unwanted memories. He tried to think of something to say, but he couldn’t think of anything.
“Force says it’s okay, that we don’t need daddy,” Hope continued, sniffling slightly. “But I still wish he was here.”
Not sure how to respond to that, Cobalt simply wrapped his front legs around her in a hug. He felt her tears before he heard them. He noticed as his shoulder began to dampen, and looking down, he saw her face buried into his body, looking like she was hiding from the rest of the world.
“I...I want daddy...b-but Force says he didn’t want me...”
He rubbed her back. “Shhh...that’s not true...”
“Then why did they leave!“ She continued to sob. “Why did they have to leave me all alone?!”
“You...you’re not alone, Hope,” Cobalt tried to comfort her. “You have Force, don’t you? He searched all over the desert to find you. He spent a whole year, wandering around the most dangerous place on the planet, just to find you. You’re not alone.”
He felt her sobbing begin to cease. He carefully broke the hug and took a step back, though he kept his hoof on her shoulder.
“Better?” he asked quietly.
Nodding her head, she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at Cobalt, smiling. “Thank you...”
He noticed the abandoned paper and crayons. “So, um...wanna colour some more?”
“Um, no thank you, I don’t really feel like colouring,” Hope all but whispered back.
“Oh. Um...what else can we do?”
“Well, I don’t really know...sorry,” she said as she looked down at her hooves.
Cobalt nuzzled her comfortingly. “It’s fine.”
Hope leaned into the nuzzle a bit and smiled again, then suddenly,let out a tiny yawn. Cobalt giggled, only for the contagious yawn to affect him as well, and he let out one of his own.
The filly giggled. “W-Wanna take a nap?”
She was answered by another yawn and a nod as the earth pony colt curled up on the ground. Hope trotted over next to him and laid down. She snuggled a bit and accidentally bumped the colt beside her, causing a slight blush to spread across her face. Cobalt, oblivious to this, simply wriggled around until he had moved closer to her, sharing body warmth.
Her face now completely flushed, Hope could feel his warm fur up against her own. Sighing a bit and smiling, her eyes began to close, and soon they had both drifted off to sleep in the middle of the floor.
A couple days later, Cobalt was up early. He was healed up - for the most part - and ready to get going again. He had packed his saddlebags with all sorts of supplies and weapons, including two new guns.
The first was Terminal’s sniper rifle. Force didn’t say anything about why Terminal had given it up; it seemed less like he was keeping a secret and more like he himself wasn’t sure. The former sniper had left the same day he was last seen, so it wasn’t like Cobalt could find him and ask.
The second was, to Cobalt’s surprise, Firelight. Force had given him his prized shotgun the afternoon before.
“Not like I’ll be needing her anytime soon,” he had said. “Just promise me you don’t lose her.”
He promised. And he meant it.
Trotting out of the house that now solely belonged to Gentle, Cobalt looked at his PipBuck. His conversation with Hope a few days prior had made him realize just how little he knew about the device, and so he had spent several hours flicking through it, trying to learn the various functions. He found a targeting system called S.A.T.S., which allowed him to lock onto enemies when shooting. He had a feeling that would be useful.
He also managed to decipher just what the Eyes-Forward Sparkle was, figuring it was more or less a map or radar system that identified creatures as friendly or hostile, as well as showing him where to go next. Acting on advice from Force, he decided to go to a large town called Lackluster. He didn’t know what to expect there, but it was a start.
His ears flickered as he heard hoofsteps. Turning, he saw Gentle walking up behind him. At first he thought she was just there to say goodbye, but then he noticed she had saddlebags of her own on her back.
“We ready to go?” she asked nonchalantly.
He didn’t answer the question, instead asking his own. “You’re coming?”
She nodded. “I don’t have anything here in Springsettlement anymore, aside from Force. And knowing that there’s a child, wandering around the Horseshoe Wasteland, all by himself...it scares me too much.”
“I’m not a child! I can take care of myself!”
“Coby, you’re ten years old. You lived those ten years sheltered in a Stable, believing that life was about fun and sunshine and puppies for all. Then, not even two weeks ago, you were thrown out into the real world, where life is about fighting for survival and relying on fewer ponies than a griffon can count on their talons. And you carry a toy gun.”
“A toy gun that’s saved me at least twice.”
“Yes, but it won’t always save you. It can’t kill or seriously injure. It’s a distraction at best. You need real firepower. And if you’re going to carry real firepower, you’re going to face others who carry real firepower. And I’m not letting you face that alone.”
No response came to the purple colt’s brain. He gave up. “Fine...”
Gentle smiled. “Good. Now, to Lackluster?”
“To Lackluster!”
“So now Gentle and I are out in the Horseshoe Wasteland again. We haven’t run into anything yet, though. Good thing.
“I’ve marked the location of Springsettlement on my map, in case I want to come back. Probably will. But for now, I want to find my dad.
“Guess now my adventure REALLY begins...
Quest Added
WANDERING THE WASTES
Search for clues as to your father's location.
Quest Added
A LACKLUSTER START
Proceed to Lackluster.
Companion Perk: Like A Mother For Her Child. Gentle Touch: she cares for you. As long as she is with you, healing items are 10% more effective and are easier to come across.
Footnote: Level Up (7)
New Perk: Friends His Own Age. Your time with Hope has helped your social skills with ponies your age. You gain a +10 to Speech when dealing with other young colts and fillies.